


Lay the sins of the parents upon their children.

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Age changes, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:08:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Robb is given certain proof, and Myrcella suffers the consequences of her mother's actions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lay the sins of the parents upon their children.

**Author's Note:**

> Because angst. Deal with it.

Arya brings one of Myrcella's fathers bastards with her when she returns from the south.

Renly brings another when he comes to seal the alliance.

Robb meets a third when he visits the Eyrie to deal with his cousin.

Gendry, Edric and Mya all have that night-dark hair, those stormy-blue eyes.

Myrcella's hair is sunshine gold, her eyes brilliant green.

 

*

 

"You believe it, then? That she and her brothers...?"

"I must, or else I am a traitor to the crown. I am sorry, Robb. I cannot imagine..."

 

*

 

She comes to his bed that night. 

He pretends to sleep.

 

*

 

He keeps Rickard with him as much as he can, entrusts him to Mother when he cannot.

He leaves Lyanna with Myrcella, keeps her away from Rickard.

Who can say when the Lannisters became unnaturally close? He will not see that rot infect House Stark.

 

*

 

The problem, he tells Theon as Rickard sleeps on his chest and Lya snores in Theon's arms, is that he still loves her with everything in him.

It is just not quite enough to temper his abhorrence.

 

*

 

She does not weep when he takes her brother's head, and that goes some way to reassuring him.

She sobs when Renly executes her mother and uncle (father).

He is not sure how to feel about that. 

 

*

 

She is his queen, his wife, the mother of his children.

But he cannot bring himself to touch her.

 

*

 

She tries so hard, so very hard, and everyone seems to forget that she is not Robert Baratheon's daughter, that the Kingslayer sired her on his twin.

Robb tries so hard, so very hard, but he cannot seem to forget that she is not Robert Baratheon's daughter, that the Kingslayer sired her on his twin.

 

*

 

Sansa tries to convince him that nothing has changed.

Myrcella, desperate, kisses him and kisses him, climbs into his lap when he kisses her back because he cannot  _not_ kiss her.

He cannot stop loving Myrcella, but Sansa is wrong.

Everything has changed.

 

*

 

Rickard falls ill, desperately ill, and people begin to worry about the succession should he die.

Robb refuses to accept that his son might die, but Myrcella comes to him with tears on her cheeks and begs him to allow her to do this service for him, to provide him with a second son.

He kisses his apologies into her skin, but he still cannot love her properly, even though he loves her completely.

 

*

 

Rickard recovers, bounds around Winterfell with red-gold curls tumbling into his blue-green eyes, Lya sprinting about on her twin's heels despite Robb's best efforts to keep them apart.

Ned is born in the first weeks of the new spring, red of hair and green of eye, and Myrcella presents Robb with this new son almost as if with a peace offering, or a treaty such as the one he signed with Renly all that time ago.

He takes their boy and silently swears to treat Myrcella better.

 

*

 

Ned is four moons old when Myrcella misses dinner.

The maester says it sometimes happens in new mothers, that an inexplicable sadness seizes them, that some do not recover from it.

Robb knows better, and if Sansa's accusing glare is anything to go by, she does too.

 

*

 

He buries Myrcella in his vault in the crypt, prays for her with Rickard and Lya and Ned, then passes his children into his mother's care and watches them ascend the steps back to the castle proper.

Then - only when the children cannot see, cannot hear - he falls to his knees, presses his cheek to the cold stone of her tomb, and begs her forgiveness.


End file.
